Discussion of the OPT is ongoing on the [link=http://www.xwaupgrade.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9707]XWA Upgrade forums[/link]. Note: The revised OPT recently posted also has the hyper-ring...if you use this ship in a mission, be sure to make docking with the hyper-ring a condition of a nav buoy's appearance.

I read that Totally Games (who made the original 4 X-Wing titles) is still interested in doing one, and that the project leader from those games still works there (along with several other important people). I hope that if Tom Clancy's HAWX proves to be a success, it generates some new interest in combat sims. I just bought a pretty rockin' new joystick, but it makes me sad that none of my favorite space combat franchises like X-Wing and Wing Commander are around anymore. Dangit Lucas Arts, make it happen already! I want to continue my rebel pilot training in the most realistic way possible.

[link=http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13717]BooTx on the Widescreen Gaming Forum[/link] has posted a widescreen hack for XWA. It requires a hex editor and only works for the game patched to version 2.02. BooTx has given the codes necessary for the most common widescreen resolutions in the post.

A user on the XWA Upgrade forums, "Reimar," has posted a fix for graphic problems in XWA running on both the ATI HD series and current-generation nVidia GPUs. The procedure is detailed in [link=http://www.xwaupgrade.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=9625]this thread[/link].

Darksaber's X-Wing Station, that venerable mainstay site of the X-Wing modding community, was recently forced to relocate (at least for now) because of problems on the host's end (the domain expired). Please set new coordinates (bookmarks) to the following:

I just bought a new vista laptop (ati radeon hd3470 card) and got XWA installed and running well. Darksaber's shipset caused it to crash though, so I rolled it back to the regular ships. All good there. Used Markus Egger's new installer.

So thought I'd give TIE95 a go too, using Marcus Eggers MSI launcher plus the 3d fix. All fine in the concourse etc, but as soon as I start TOD1, mission 1, the game will play for 2-10 seconds (looking lovely for those seconds and I approach the platform) and then I get a black scren and a 'display driver stopped working & has recovered' box mentioning the driver atikmdag. - same message I got with XWA and the enhanced opts, incidentally.

I've looked for general fixes for the problem for people getting it on other games (removing a windows update, disabling Aero desktop), and browsed the LEC and XWAUpgrade.com forums, but haven't stumbled on a fix yet. And idea why it may be crashing after a few seconds in 3D Hardware mode?

DTM has released the fully-armored Y-wing (as depicted in the "Clone Wars" animated series). Below is a shot of the "Red" flight group (it looks like Gold, but DTM flip-flopped the Red and Gold textures to make the Gold {Shadow Squadron} ones the default):

Ezri on the Totally Games forum noted in his latest post that [link=http://www.gameranger.com]GameRanger[/link] now supports XvT and BoP. I checked their list of supported games, and XWA is there, too, so here's a new place for you multiplayer jocks to play.

A new "Battle of Yavin" shipset has recently been released by Dave "Red Leader", which contains (for perhaps the first time) Master Qui Gon's Death Star surface OPT, HernÃ¡n Barreiro's full Death Star OPT (his first one, not the one he was working on when he "disappeared"), and various XWA Upgrade craft. Follow [link=http://redleaderxwa.webs.com/battleofyavinshipset.htm]this link[/link] for the download.

DTM has successfully included a textured sky with a skydome OPT (based on Dodonna's work), thus eliminating the need to modify backdrops for planetary surfaces. His testbeds were Geonosis (for his own Clone Wars shipset) and Bricera (from General Trageton's "Blue Phantom" campaign), but DTM plans to make other locations (Tatooine, Hoth, Mustafar, etc.) available in time. The Geonosis OPT can be d/l'ed from the "Planets" section of [link=http://www.mtdindustries.com/xwa]MTD Industries[/link], and the OPT comes with a basic free-flight mission which can be used with AlliED to build every combat situation.

Screenshots of the testbed OPTs can be found on [link=http://xwaupgrade.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10107]the XWA Upgrade forums[/link].

"waylon", the user responsible for much of the TIE Fighter Total Conversion for XWA, has recently released a version 3.1 of an X-Wing Conversion for XWA, which includes all of the missions (with voiced briefings) available in the X-Wing Collector's CD-ROM except for 3 missions in ToD 3, which have been replaced by 3 of "Red_Leader's" Battle of Yavin missions. The conversion downloads are linked in [link=http://xwaupgrade.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=9713&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=150]this thread[/link] (look for the links referencing sendspace.com). Note: As some of the missions in ToDs 4 and 5 offered a choice between 2 missions, the missions deemed harder were included in the conversion.

A new modeler, known as "FunkyFreshMan" on the XWA Upgrade boards, has posted his first work, a (you guessed it) TIE variant that was (eventually) named the TIE Archer. Check [link=http://xwaupgrade.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10071]this thread[/link] for screenshots of the craft at various stages of its creation (the finished product appears near the end), and you can download this bad boy at [link=http://vince-t.de/fighters/tiearcher.html]Vince T's X-Wing HQ[/link] (linked page also has a backstory, which is also in the OPT's "read-me").

DTM has released a version 2 of the Trade Federation Droid Control Ship/Battleship, which is a re-texture of Rebel's original model by General Trageton. [link=http://www.xwaupgrade.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10233]The thread announcing the release[/link] (on the XWA Upgrade forums) has an animated GIF showing the new version from just about every angle. The new OPT can be downloaded from [link=http://www.mtdindustries.com/xwa]MTD Industries[/link].

DTM has released a number of new (?) planetary environments in recent days, so I'm going to get to all of them now...

First, the Yavin IV and Mustafar environments have been given re-textures, and you can find screenshots of both environments [link=http://www.xwaupgrade.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10249]here[/link].

DTM has also released a planetary environment for Bespin, which can be used for just about any high-altitude atmospheric mission. The environment comes with an OPT of Cloud City (the way he chose to do this OPT is pretty clever...you can read how he did it, along with screenshots from Bespin, [link=http://www.xwaupgrade.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10244]here[/link]).

As always, you may download the new environments from [link=http://www.mtdindustries.com/xwa]MTD Industries[/link].